


Is it cool if I hold your hand?

by emmerrr



Series: go on, I dare you [2]
Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: First Dates, First Kiss, Fluff, M/M, please do read the first part, this is a sequel!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-19
Updated: 2018-04-19
Packaged: 2019-04-24 20:18:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14362860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emmerrr/pseuds/emmerrr
Summary: Aurora dithers for a minute, smiling in a way Ronan doesn’t trust for a second.“I couldn’t help but overhear,” she says eventually, and Ronan sighs.“I bet you could have if you tried.”“Alright, fair enough.” She sits on the edge of his bed. “So you’re going on a date?”Ronan nods.“With who? Anyone I know?”





	Is it cool if I hold your hand?

**Author's Note:**

> I strongly, strongly recommend that you read part 1 (hands open, heart open) first. this is really written with the assumption that you've read that already, so to get the proper context, I really suggest you do! otherwise it might be a little confusing.

“Adam,” Henry says delicately. “You seem a little…on edge.”

“I have no idea what you mean,” Adam replies. It’s their lunch-break and they’re sitting outside Fox Way on a bench, eating their sandwiches. Adam can’t keep still; he’s alternating between checking his phone and checking his watch. He’s vaguely aware of his knee jiggling incessantly.

Henry gestures blithely at Adam’s entire being. “You’re sort of giving off a vibe.” He perches his elbows on the table and puts his chin in his hands. “Is this about Ronan by any chance?”

Adam stills just as Blue returns to their table carrying three cans of coke.

“What did I miss?” she asks.

“Nothing,” Adam says, just as Henry says, “Adam was about to tell me about his upcoming _date.”_

“How did you know we’re even going out?” Adam asks Henry shrewdly. Ronan only asked him the night before, and Adam hasn’t told anybody yet.

“Ha, I didn’t,” Henry says triumphantly. “Lucky guess, but as you’ve admitted it now you may as well spill.”

Blue clings to the potential of juicy gossip immediately. She sits opposite Adam and pins him with a steely-eyed stare. “Tell me _everything.”_

Adam picks up the can Blue slides towards him and shrugs. “What’s there to tell? I haven’t _been_ on it yet.”

“Yes, but where are you going? How did he ask? Or did _you_ ask? I need details! Come on, Adam, let me live vicariously through you.”

“What do you need to live vicariously through me for? What happened with Nancy?” Too late, Adam notices Henry vehemently shaking his head with wide-eyes, just outside Blue’s line of sight.

Nancy is a pretty tattooed florist with a septum piercing and turquoise hair that Blue met whilst picking out flowers for the welcome desk at Fox Way. She’s all Blue’s been talking about for weeks. In other words, Blue’s been living out her very own flower-shop AU.

 _“Nancy,”_ Blue says bitterly. “I _knew_ she was too good to be true.” She sighs expansively. “It’s over. It’s _so_ over.”

“What happened?”

“A fundamental difference of opinion,” Henry says.

“She didn’t _vote,”_ Blue exclaims. “Can you believe that? I mean, at least she didn’t vote for Trump, but she said that Hilary was ‘just as bad’ and so abstained entirely. I mean, Hilary wouldn’t have been my first choice obviously, but when the alternative’s this bigoted, tiny-handed, racist, literal scum of the earth…”

Blue pauses to catch her breath, and Adam, sensing this is heading for a full on rant, gently interjects, “So Nancy’s a no-go.”

“A definite no-go,” Blue affirms, then shoots an entreating look Adam’s way. “So please, please, distract me with your date plans?”

Adam gives in. He can never say no to that face. “It’s on Saturday. I’m driving down to meet him at his family's farm, and then from there he’s taking us to this carnival that’s happening close to where he lives.”

“Why doesn’t he just come and pick you up if he’s driving anyway?”

“Because otherwise he’s got to come all the way over here and then we’d have to double-back on ourselves. Makes more sense if I go to his first. He did offer, though.”

“That sounds fun. And hey, it means you’ll have to go _back_ to his after to get your car and he’ll probably invite you in for a coffee and then…” Henry raises his eyebrows and grins. “You know, nudge, nudge, wink, wink.”

“Yes, okay, thank you, Captain Subtlety,” Adam says with a scowl as Blue bursts out laughing.

“No, but seriously, Adam, that sounds nice,” she says when the laughter’s receded. “Are you excited?”

He’s definitely excited, but also nervous. A _lot_ nervous, and he doesn’t entirely understand why. He shrugs, suddenly embarrassed.

“Oh boy,” Blue says, gauging his expression, and Adam’s struck by just how well she knows him. “You really like this one, huh?”

Adam covers his face in his hands and nods. “I really, really do,” he mumbles.

“Adam you are too adorable, I can’t handle this,” Blue says, her tone absolutely delighted.

“Do you want my advice?” Henry asks.

 _“No,”_ Adam says emphatically, removing his hands from his face. His ears are pink, he can feel it.

Henry ignores him. “You’re over-thinking this.”

“…That’s not advice!”

Henry shrugs. “Ah, well. You said you didn’t want it anyway.”

“Henry’s sort of got a point, though, Adam,” Blue reasons. “You and Ronan have clearly been wanting to jump each other’s bones since day one—” Adam blushes furiously and drops his head onto the table, “—I’m sorry but it’s _true!_ What I’m saying is you know he likes you, you obviously like _him,_ so just try and let that knowledge take the pressure off, if you can.”

Adam lifts his head. “Actually, that makes it harder, though. Now it feels like there’s an expectation. And there’ll be tension.”

“Yeah, but like, sexual tension,” Henry adds not-helpfully, “and that’s the _best kind.”_

“This is true,” Blue says with a wise nod.

Adam groans. “You’re both terrible, and I don’t feel any calmer. Thank you for nothing.”

“Anytime,” Henry says, smiling widely. He gets to his feet. “Come on, slackers, break-time is over.”

As Adam trails Blue and Henry back inside, his phone goes off in his hand, and his heart skips an automatic beat when he sees an incoming message from Ronan. (Because they’ve been doing that. Texting. Regularly. And Ronan has called twice. Despite his self-admission that he hates his phone, he’s been using it to talk to Adam, and that’s got to mean _something.)_

Adam clicks into the message and it’s a picture of three cows staring through a fence, captioned: **all that fuckin grass to eat and they’re staring at me eating my sandwich**

Adam grins and taps out a reply: _So stop being stingy and give them some_

**\- fuck no parrish, my mom made it for me it’s my favourite**

_\- That is…adorable_

**\- …ok i didn’t mean to tell u that**

_\- Too late :)_

Just like that, Adam feels more settled. He knows really that he’s only so flustered because he _likes_ Ronan so much, and up until now the majority of their interactions have been in a professional setting. That’s all out of the window now, and they’re free to explore a relationship outside of that. Whatever happens, happens.

Adam lets the anxiety make room for anticipation instead, and goes back to work.

* * *

 

Ronan’s struggling to decide what to wear when his mother knocks on his door.

“There’s a phone-call for you,” she says brightly when he lets her in.

“Who is it?” he asks suspiciously.

Aurora avoids the question and just passes the phone over. “It sounds important.”

Ronan takes the phone and brings it to his ear as his mother disappears back down the corridor. “Ronan Lynch,” he says brusquely into the receiver.

“You _are_ still alive then,” says Richard Campbell Gansey the Third.

Of course. Of fucking course. “I have my own phone you know. You didn’t have to track me down through my mom.”

“But apparently I _did_ because I’ve been calling and calling and you haven’t picked up.”

“Yes, because apparently you can’t take a hint.” Ronan flings himself down on his bed. “What do you want?” He's pretty sure he already knows, of course, but he’s willing to give Gansey the benefit of the doubt.

Gansey hesitates. “I spoke to Adam this morning. He mentioned you two were going on a date this afternoon.”

“Fuck off, I’m not telling you about my date. _Goodbye,_ Gansey,” Ronan says shortly and hangs up.

A moment later he gets a message through on his own phone which is simply several lines of sad face emojis. Ronan has no idea who taught Gansey to use emojis. Probably Helen. Although also, potentially, Adam.

Ronan’s phone buzzes again:

\- _I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to overstep.Your well-being and happiness is important to me, as is Adam’s. It’s exciting!_

Ronan sighs. Between the two of them, he and Adam really do have the most meddlesome and involved friends, even if, ultimately, their hearts are in the right place. At least Ronan only has it from Gansey, however. Adam has Gansey too, but also Blue and Henry; Ronan does not envy that level of scrutiny.

**\- i kno that dick. just leave today to me and i’ll talk to u tomorrow**

\- _Absolutely! Have fun :)_

Ronan checks the time before tossing his phone aside, and it’s 11:45am, and Adam’s due to arrive at around 12:30pm. Gansey’s phone-call has actually helped, if only because it’s annoyed Ronan into calming down.

Aurora materialises in the doorway. “Are you finished with my phone?” she asks.

“Here.” Ronan picks it up and holds it out to her.

After taking it, Aurora dithers for a minute, smiling in a way Ronan doesn’t trust for a second.

“I couldn’t help but overhear,” she says eventually, and Ronan sighs.

“I bet you could have if you tried.”

“Alright, fair enough.” She sits on the edge of his bed. “So you’re going on a date?”

Ronan nods.

“With who? Anyone I know?”

Ronan shakes his head, but at his mom’s encouraging smile he reluctantly speaks up. “It’s the masseuse from Fox Way. Gansey’s friend.”

“Ohh, of course. The one who helped with your back. What was his name again?”

“Adam.” Ronan says it in such a way that Aurora will know that’s the most she’s getting out of him.

She pats him on the leg and laughs lightly. “Okay, kiddo, I’ll leave you to it.” On her way out she spots the two black tank tops Ronan was trying to choose between, remarkably similar to the untrained eye, but with subtle differences. “Wear the one on the left,” is Aurora’s parting gift before Ronan is once again left alone.

Once he’s ready, he goes outside to wait by his car, so he’ll see Adam come down the driveway and they can leave as soon as he arrives. Belatedly, Ronan thinks he should have arranged something else for this date; gone to Adam instead of having Adam come to him, because obviously Aurora is around, and it just so happens to be a weekend that both Matthew and Declan are in town.

But fortunately, there’s farm-work to be done, so when Adam _does_ pull up, Ronan’s family are down in one of the fields and not gawking through the kitchen window.

Ronan hasn’t actually seen Adam in person since his last massage session a little over a week ago, in which they ditched the massage part, went down to the river to skip stones, and then Adam gave Ronan his number.

Oh, and he kissed Ronan on the cheek. That happened, too.

This _was_ all Ronan had been thinking about while he was waiting, but now that Adam’s here, Ronan’s sort of distracted by his car.

“Parrish,” he says when Adam turns off the engine and steps out. “What the fuck is _that?”_

“It’s my ancient car, and I got it second hand from someone _else_ who got it second hand, and I love it, and you’re not allowed to make fun of it.”

“Oh, but I really, _really_ want to,” Ronan says, walking in a circle around Adam’s tri-coloured old banger, clearly stitched together from parts of entirely different cars.

“Tough,” Adam says, but he sounds like he’s smiling, and Ronan finally turns to look at him properly.

Adam’s wearing light denim jeans and a white t-shirt that shows off his tan and he looks really fucking good.

“Alright, Parrish,” Ronan says, averting his eyes before he’s called out for staring. “Let’s get out of here.”

But Adam’s peering around at the house and beyond, towards the fields, obviously curious. Ronan doesn’t want him to think that he’s trying to rush him, or that he doesn’t want to risk him bumping into any of his family members, even though both are technically true. It’s just that he sort of wants Adam to himself for a little while. “I’ll give you a tour another time, Parrish.”

Adam pauses, then a slow smile spreads across his face. “Another time,” he says.

It almost sounds like a promise.

* * *

 

Ten minutes after they arrive at the carnival, and Ronan can’t believe he ever thought this would be a good idea.

For one thing, it’s absolutely _heaving._ Ronan’s not hugely fond of crowds on the best of days, and a quick look a Adam suggests he isn’t either.

For another thing, it’s one of the hottest days of the year so far. Adam’s dressed marginally more sensibly in his white t-shirt, but Ronan is typically in an all-black ensemble, and he can really _feel_ it. He can practically hear his mother’s voice in his head asking if he’s wearing any sunblock. And then he chases her out of his thoughts, because he’s on a date, actually, and she’s cramping his style.

They go on the main rollercoaster before it gets even busier, and this is Ronan’s first mistake, because as much as he likes speed when he’s behind the wheel, he’s not so good with rollercoasters. Something about a lack of control, maybe. He just tends to close his eyes until it’s over. He’s not _afraid_ exactly, and he’ll go on them, but he doesn’t like them very much. They make him feel funny.

Adam, on the other hand, loves the rollercoaster, and immediately suggests going again, which they do.

Once they’ve been around again, Ronan feels like everything is spinning, and Adam looks at him in concern. “Ronan, don’t take this the wrong way, but you've gone a little green.”

Ronan grunts.

“Are you feeling alright?”

“I could do with some water, Parrish,” he admits, and Adam pulls him over to a nearby bench and sits him down.

“Wait here,” Adam says, then he’s gone, vanishing into the crowd. Ronan almost wants to laugh at the absurdity. Here he is on a date with the first guy he’s liked in longer than he’s comfortable remembering, and he’s gone and overheated and made it look like he can’t even handle one little rollercoaster.

A few minutes later Adam returns with a bottle of water that is blissfully cold, and he hands it over and sits down beside Ronan. The water helps immediately, but Ronan is painfully aware of Adam watching him with a vaguely amused expression on his face.

“Listen Parrish,” he starts, “I just got a little dehydrated, that’s all. It’s nothing to do with the rollercoaster.”

Adam holds his hands up defensively. “I didn’t say anything,” he says, and he’s _such_ a little shit, he’s clearly enjoying this, and Ronan is so completely smitten. Smote. That fucking _smile._ “D’you thing you can manage the bumper cars?”

Ronan shakes his head in exasperation but he grins—he can’t help it. “Can I manage the bumper cars,” he repeats with a scoff. “’Course I fucking can. Let’s go, Parrish.” He stands up and offers Adam his hand.

Adam takes it.

* * *

 

At the bumper cars, because Adam and Ronan are big kids, they get a car each, and are gunning for each other as soon as they’re able. They bump into each other head on, and it soon becomes clear that there’s something wrong with the one Ronan’s driving, because it spins away and Ronan can’t seem to get it back under control.

Adam follows in his own car, vaguely hears Ronan shout something about his, _“stupid bastard broken car”_ despite the great number of kids around. If Adam were so inclined, he could give Ronan a break and not kick him while he’s down.

Adam elects not to take the high road.

With his own bumper car, he pushes Ronan’s car all the way to the edge of the ring and then just gently runs into him, over and over again.

“You know that this doesn’t make you a better driver than me, right? This doesn’t mean you _win,_ this is just shoddy machinery,” Ronan says, arms crossed as he glares back at Adam, resigned to his fate.

“Funny, that sounds like something a loser would say,” Adam replies, and just keeps on going.

After the bumper cars, they go to one of the little game stalls, and Ronan insists on playing. It’s one where there’s coconuts on top of perches and you have to throw balls at them and knock them off for prizes.

“You know those things are rigged, right?” Adam says as Ronan’s paying his $1 to play. “It’s almost impossible to win.”

 _“Almost_ being the operative word, Parrish,” Ronan says, a cocky glint in his eye. “But I’ve got my eye on that giant stuffed shark. Just you watch.”

Adam _does_ watch. He watches Ronan waste $5 and become increasingly agitated with the guy running the stall. “Oh come _on,_ I blatantly hit two of them that time and they didn’t even budge, have you _super-glued_ them?”

“Look man, maybe you should step out of line and give someone else a turn,” the guy says.

Ronan pulls another dollar out of his pocket. “One more go.”

At last, he manages to knock one coconut off its perch, and cheers from the small crowd that has gathered to watch erupt around them. Ronan grins, triumphant, and the stall-runner rolls his eyes.

“Okay, okay, what prize do you want?”

“I want the shark, obviously.”

“Nah. You gotta knock all of the coconuts down to win the shark. You can pick anything from this row.” He points to the bottom shelf behind him, where all the cheapest looking prizes sit.

“Oh, _what?”_ Ronan complains.

“Those are the rules.”

Ronan sighs, then looks at Adam. His expression turns thoughtful and he again turns to the shelf of prizes. “That one,” he says, pointing to the far right of the shelf. As soon as the man hands it over, Ronan says, “C’mon, Parrish,” before Adam can get a good look at it.

They head for the ice cream truck, and after getting a couple of cones (Ronan tries to pay but Adam insists), they sit down on a nearby bench.

They’re both silent for a minute as they eat their ice-creams, but then Ronan shyly hands over his prize. It’s a little teddy-bear, and it’s wearing a magician’s hat and holding a wand.

“For me?” Adam asks.

Ronan blushes—or maybe he’s just flushed from the heat—and rubs the back of his head with his hand. “Yeah, Parrish. For you.”

Adam grins. “Thank you. It’s a magician.”

“Yep. Like you.”

Adam laughs. “What?”

“A magician. Like you and your magic hands that helped my back. You’re magic, Parrish.” Ronan somehow seems to say this without an ounce of self-consciousness despite his shyness from just a moment before, and Adam finds this time that he can’t quite look at Ronan without being embarrassingly overcome.

“Well, I’m glad I could help,” he says. “But I’m even gladder that I got to meet you.”

“I’m surprised Gansey didn’t introduce us a long time ago.”

“Yeah. He seems pretty pleased about how things are progressing now though,” Adam says dryly.

It’s Ronan’s turn to laugh. “He _does_ doesn’t he? That’s your fault though, Parrish, you’re the one who told him we were going on a date.”

“I mentioned it in the assumption you’d already told him, how was I supposed to know you’d kept it so quiet?”

“Have you _met_ me?”

“…Alright, good point,” Adam says, and he smiles. Ronan smiles back. Adam cleans off his hands with a napkin. “Okay, so be honest with me. Did today go like you imagined it would?”

“Not exactly,” Ronan admits. “In my mind, it wasn’t this busy—”

“It’s Saturday,” Adam interjects.

“—and it wasn’t this hot—”

“It’s summer.”

“—and my date didn’t interrupt me every five seconds to tell me how wrong I am about everything.” He shoots Adam a pointed look but he’s clearly not actually annoyed, and Adam grins and mimes zipping up his mouth. “I thought we’d go on the rollercoaster so you could see how brave I am, and then I’d be the best on the bumper cars because _obviously,_ and I thought I’d impress you with my skills at carnival games and win you the biggest stuffed toy available.”

Adam hugs his little magician bear closer to his chest. “I’m happy with the smallest one,” he says.

“Good. You better treasure him forever, Parrish.”

Adam really thinks he will. “I’ve had a good day,” he says. “I really, really have. But do you maybe want to get out of here?”

Ronan beams. “Parrish, I thought you’d never ask.”

They hold hands the entire way back to the car.

* * *

 

Ronan takes them up into the mountains.

“I know a place,” he says, because of course he does.

They don’t really talk much on the drive, because Ronan likes his music _loud,_ and also the windows are down as low as they’ll go so there’s a roar of air, and a combination of the two makes conversation virtually impossible. Adam doesn’t mind. He’s finding that he likes this part. He likes that he can sneak glances at Ronan while he’s driving, and he’s usually quick enough to look away in time before Ronan does the same to him. Not every time. Sometimes they catch each other at it, and on those occasions they blush and smile and look away again.

It’s all butterflies in the stomach, heart clenching in sweet anticipation and Adam knows—he just _knows_ —that this could be the start of something really, really awesome.

They go up and up and up, and then Ronan turns off and they find themselves at a viewpoint, although it’s not one Adam’s ever been to before.

He gets out of the car and steps over to the railing, looking out and down. He follows the trail they came up with his finger for as far as he can until he loses it in the distance. Further out, he can see the carnival they’ve just been to, although not in any clear detail. It’s more smatterings of colour. He can make out the ferris wheel and the rollercoaster, and the parking lot, all of the cars merging into a sea of colour.

He feels rather than hears Ronan settle next to him.

“You can see everything from up here,” he says in awe.

“It’s not a bad view,” Ronan agrees approvingly.

Adam turns to Ronan at the same time as Ronan turns to him. They’re very, very close together, noses almost touching, and Adam doesn’t know what to focus on. He looks at Ronan’s nose but then realises it’s making him go cross-eyed, so he looks at Ronan’s lips instead.

“It’s not a bad spot at all,” Ronan murmurs.

“For what?” Adam says, and it comes out in a whisper, because it feels like a whispering moment somehow.

“For a first kiss,” Ronan says, and before Adam can laugh at him for the pure cheesiness of the comment, Ronan’s lips are on his and all of a sudden it’s not so funny anymore.

“You are not as smooth as you think you are,” Adam says, a little breathlessly, when they pull apart a moment later.

“Maybe not,” Ronan says with a smug smile, “but you’re still gonna kiss me again.”

“God. God, you’re such an asshole,” Adam says. And he kisses him again.

* * *

 

It’s almost dark by the time they get back to the Barns, and Ronan pulls in next to Adam’s shitbox of a car. He sees his mother spying through the curtain just before he cuts the headlights off, and he sighs as she disappears. He turns to Adam. “I’m sorry for whatever’s about to happen,” he says, and gets out of the car.

Adam gets out, too. “What do you mean?” he asks, confused.

As if on cue, Aurora opens the front door. “Ronan!” she says. “You’re home.”

“We’ve been ambushed,” he tells Adam, then turns to his mom. “Yes. Well spotted. I saw you through the window, by the way, nice hiding place. Subtle.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she says with faux-sweetness, before turning the full effect of her smile on Adam. “And you must be Adam! I’m Aurora, it’s so lovely to meet you. Ronan’s told me almost nothing about you.”

Adam shakes the hand she offers, looking like a deer caught in headlights. “Uh, should I be offended?”

“Oh, not at all. Ronan keeps important things pretty close to his chest.”

Ronan face-palms. “Mom…”

She ignores him. “Come on in, Adam, I just made a lasagna. There’s plenty.”

“Oh no, I couldn’t, thank you ma’am, but—”

“Aurora. And don’t be silly, of course you can. Ronan would never have been rude enough not to invite you into his home, and you’re right in time for dinner. Unless you’ve made other plans…?” She shoots a questioning look at Ronan over her shoulder.

He has not made other plans. He really wishes he had.

“Only if Parrish wants to,” Ronan says. “Stop bullying him, Mom.”

She waves a dismissive hand at Ronan but goes on ahead into the house and Ronan catches up to Adam’s side.

“You really can say no,” he feels the need to tell Adam. “She honestly won’t be offended, but I know this might seem a little…much.” He really doesn’t want Adam to be overwhelmed. Although, secretly, he also really doesn’t want Adam to leave. Even if he knows his mom is bound to spend the next hour embarrassing him. In front of his…almost-boyfriend? Whoa.

“No, no, it’s fine, I’d like to stay, if it’s okay with you.”

“’Course it is, Parrish.”

“Your mom seems lovely.”

“She is. Although, fair warning, I’m pretty sure my brothers are both home, too.”

Adam hesitates, then he laughs. “No, it’s okay, this is good. It’s just meeting the family of the guy I’m seeing after one date. It’s…totally normal.”

“Again, Parrish, feel free to say no.”

Adam looks nervous, but he also looks determined. Ronan kisses him on the cheek, and Adam smiles, briefly distracted by the gesture. “I’m saying yes. Who turns down lasagna?”

Ronan holds the door open for Adam and grins. “No one, that’s who.”

* * *

 

Ronan had suspected Aurora would embarrass him, but he hadn’t accounted for Matthew, the little traitor.

As soon as the dinner dishes are cleared away, Matthew drags Adam off to the living room and gets the old family photo albums out to show Adam, who gives a mortified Ronan an apologetic look, but still lets Matthew and Aurora talk him through all Ronan’s baby and toddler pictures.

Ronan watches the whole thing unfold from the opposite sofa, horrified.

“Oh look at his lovely curls, Adam, aren’t they lovely?” Aurora says, pointing at one of the pictures.

“They are,” Adam says dutifully, catching Ronan’s eye and grinning. Ronan shakes his head but it’s hard to stay mad when Adam looks like _that,_ happy to be sandwiched between Aurora and Matthew.

“When are you going to grow your hair out again, Ronan? It is so lovely when you grow it,” Aurora says.

Ronan sighs. “I don’t know, Mom. Maybe in time for winter. Maybe never.”

“I’d like to see the curly hair sometime,” Adam says, quietly, and offhand.

Ronan clears his throat. “Probably this winter then.” He doesn’t miss the quirk of a smile on Adam’s face, although Adam doesn’t look up.

Declan comes in from the kitchen and sits down next to Ronan. He sees what the others are looking at and snorts. “I _knew_ Mom would get the baby pictures out.”

“Actually I can blame this one on Matthew,” Ronan says. “I won’t forget this betrayal,” he tells his little brother. “The next time you bring someone home, I’m heading straight for your baby book.”

Matthew is unruffled as ever. “Go for it. I was an adorable baby.”

“You’re adorable _now,”_ Aurora says.

“I know,” Matthew says, and sighs loftily. “It’s a gift and a curse.”

Soon after, Adam politely thanks everyone for their hospitality, but says he should probably get going.

Aurora sets him up with a Tupperware full of freshly baked brownies.

“Thank you, but how will I get this back to you?” Adam says, meaning the Tupperware.

“Oh, just give it to Ronan,” Aurora says. “Or bring it around yourself, you’re welcome any time.” She rounds on Ronan. “Make sure you see Adam out to his car. Don’t forget your manners.”

Ronan rolls his eyes and resists the urge to remind his mother that he is, in fact, an adult. “I was already going to do that,” he says, then puts a hand on the small of Adam’s back and guides him to the door.

Back outside, it’s now nice and cool. Adam puts his brownies and his teddy bear in the passenger seat, and after some deliberation, fastens the seat-belt around them.

“Safety first,” Ronan says sagely when Adam stands back up and turns to face him.

“Of course,” Adam replies. “Listen, I feel like I should say something, in the interest of full-disclosure.”

Ronan’s stomach drops. “What?”

Adam grabs the bottom of Ronan’s tank top and tugs him closer. “It’s just that, if you needed to make anymore appointments about your back at some point down the road, I don’t think I could do them anymore. Not at Fox Way. It would be a conflict of interest.”

“A conflict of interest,” Ronan repeats, and he’s smiling now. He kisses Adam, meaning it to be quick, but it’s not. Of course it’s not. Because now that he's kissed Adam Parrish he never wants to  _stop_ kissing Adam Parrish. There are worse problems to have.

 _“You_ are the conflict of interest, by the way, in case that wasn’t clear,” Adam says when they part to get their breath back.

“Yeah, I got that, Parrish. Somehow, I think I’ll manage.”

He kisses Adam again, and it feels like the start of something new.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm leaving this universe open because i love it it's so light. i have other ideas as well, all equally as plotless as this one lmao. i hope you liked it! <3
> 
> (also the title is from First Date by blink-182 because it seemed appropriate)


End file.
